Though not part of it, this volume adopts the guiding principles of the Cambridge University Press series: Literature in Context. According to the website of the publisher, the underlying assumption is that “the understanding of literary texts can be greatly enhanced by an appreciation of the context within which their authors lived and worked.” The editor explicitly claims that the volume is not “another improved Companion to Augustine for Augustinian scholars,” but that it “is intended for a larger audience” (4). The main difference with a Companion to Augustine is that there is no section dedicated to the works, a lacuna that seems to characterize the volumes from the Literature in Context series too.

Tarmo Toom, the editor, describes the organization as moving “from an introduction of the person (the so-called personal context) to the contexts of Augustine's works and ideas, starting from the intellectual setting and extending to the sociopolitical realm” (5). Part 1 deals with Augustine's life and the sources for it (chapters 2–7). Part 2 describes the literary and intellectual contexts (chapters 8–15). Part 3 considers the religious contexts (chapters 16–21). Part IV covers the political, social, and cultural contexts (chapters 22–26). Part 5, on the reception of Augustine, is limited to the author's lifetime (chapters 27–29). The rationale offered for this choice (3–4) is the recent publication of the three volumes of The Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine (Oxford University Press, 2013). The number and distribution of chapters between the five parts, though not supposed to “suggest a hierarchy of importance” (5), is worth commenting upon briefly. Parts 3 and 4 reproduce a distinction between the religious and secular contexts that the scholarship of the last twenty years has tried to overcome. Only five chapters are supposed to cover the “secular” context that encompasses no less than the political, the social, and the cultural contexts. To be fair, such a choice might reflect the decision to present the volume as religious studies. This could explain the choice of describing the major controversies in Augustine's life as “ecclesiological” (the Donatist controversy), “soteriological” (mainly the Pelagian controversy), and “Trinitarian,” a vocabulary that reflects traditional theological divisions of study.

As all chapters are well under ten pages long, they inevitably breeze quite quickly through the material they are supposed to cover. In some cases, one wonders what “a larger audience,” presumably not very knowledgeable about the period, will get out of them. For instance, Stephen A. Cooper, writer of the chapter on scripture and biblical commentaries (86–93), cannot but say a few words about each of the twelve Latin commentators he wants to introduce (Victorinus of Petau, Hilary of Poitiers, Gregory of Elvira, Marius Victorinus, Ambrosiaster, Ambrose, Jerome, Tyconius, Rufinus, Pelagius, and Julian of Eclanum). Dean Hammer is in a similar situation with the chapter on imperial politics and legislation in Roman Africa (179–186) when he tries to present the ecclesiastical policy of the emperors between Constantine and Valentinian III in about three pages. Some chapters were less challenging for their authors. Thus, Erika T. Hermanowicz provides an excellent presentation of Possidius, his Life of Augustine, and his role in the dissemination of Augustine's works (30–36). Jaclyn Maxwell also succeeds in introducing letters and sermons as important texts for the study of the social and cultural contexts of late antique bishops (111–118).

Two tools open and close the volume: a chronological chart (xviii–xxiii) and a bibliography (246–260). The latter is divided between a “note on Augustine's works” and a section called “Further Reading.” The note lists several books and websites that provide a list of the works of Augustine. Many of them are redundant; fewer references with more information about their content would have proved more useful. The “Further Reading” references are organized by chapter, which makes one wonder why the references were not placed at the end of each chapter where they would have been easier to locate. Here again, fewer references with a line or two about their content would have been a better option. For instance, the section on Roman religion lists the two-volume textbook by Beard and others, and both the Rives and the Rüpke shorter introductions. All these references are excellent, but there is no indication where to start and why one would need to read Rüpke and Rives. Also, a few references appear more than once.

All the individual contributions are of quality, including those that were signaled above for their challenging task. The reservations expressed in this review are more about the concept behind such a volume: it is not quite clear that Augustine can be presented in context within such a small volume as successfully as the thirty-six modern authors of the Literature in Context series.